Manaiakalani Orientation Day

On Wednesday the 20th of January I attended the Manaiakalani orientation day for 2016 held at Tamaki college. The day was inspirational and I learnt a lot about Manaiakalani and met some wonderful teacher from the cluster. Throughout the day Dorothy Burt and other wonderful Manaiakalani educators gave us a presentation on the journey of the cluster so far. It include the who, what, how and where of Manaiakalani. Through learning these elements I have gain a much better understand of the goal, experience and people within the cluster. I am excited to be a part of a community of educators and build relationships with teacher within and beyond the cluster.

An Amazing Walk

Map of our walk

On Monday the 18th of January I began my journey in the Manaiakalani digital teacher academy. The day began with an amazing walk.

The Walk 

Our walk was 14km long and took us to all of the schools in the Manaiakalani cluster. It also allowed us to see the community of Tamaki where the children in our classes come from. What I learned from this experience was that these school cater to a diverse and ever changing community. What I found interesting and challenging about this community was the amount of change that is taking place. This change comes in the form of rebuilding of many houses within the community. In this rebuild they are removing old houses so where there was once one house, soon three new houses will stand in it place. This is exciting progress but it is also has its challenges. I am interest to see what challenges it bring and the positive long term changes in may bring.

2016 MDTA Cohort

The People

The other part of our walk was meeting and getting to know the amazing 2016 MDTA cohort. Getting to know these talented people has made me even more excited about the MDTA program and all we will learn together. I can't wait to see what the year will bring.